Halloween!

Tomorrow is Halloween so we will be celebrating at McMillan! I just wanted to give a few reminders about our Halloween expectations! Here at the school our celebrations don't start until after lunch, so students are asked to bring their costume in a bag and will be given time after lunch to change before the events start! At 1:20 we will be doing our annual costume parade through the hallways, heading to the gym where we will dance the MONSTER MASH! Parents are welcome to attend this event and join in! There will be an extra surprise for everyone too! After the monster mash, we will be heading back to our classroom to have some snacks and small class party where the kids can play board games or do activity sheets until the end of the day.

Please remember that replica weapons and scary masks should not be brought to school!

I hope everyone has a very safe and happy Halloween!!

Milton Randall DRUMMING!

Today was such an eventful day for our whole school - especially the grade 4's and 5's! Milton Randall, a percussionist, came and did a Afro-Brazilian Drum Experience! Our class spent some time with him throughout the entire day, practicing a series of drums, chants and dances. He was quite the character and taught the students how to "talk" with the drums! They had a fantastic time learning and then, at the end of the day, they got to present their skills to the entire school!

If you'd like to learn a little more about the musician, Milton Randall, check out this website


And here's a YouTube video of another school taking part in the performance! This video will show essentially what we all got to do today!

You Tube Video


Keep your eyes posted on the McMillan televisions and the year-end slideshow for some pictures! Mr. Bird was snapping them all day!

Have a great weekend!

Salish Weaving!!!

Today we had such a wonderful presentation in class! We had a First Nations presenter come in and teach us all about Salish weaving! The kids had a blast and were really engaged and on-task, working all day on their beautiful creations! The students learned about the variety of materials used in weaving and learned about different patterns and what each pattern means. Then, they got to try their hand at weaving and make their own piece. Students paired up, two to a loom, and worked hard all day on their weaving. Hopefully they are all very proud of what they did, because they looked great! I snapped a few pictures at lunch; I may have missed some since a few students were already done and had their pieces of the looms already. Maybe a few kids can spot theirs!

Place Value Test on Friday

As most of you may know, we have our first math test on Friday - Place Value! The entire class has been showing a good understanding of the concepts so far and should hopefully be very successful on the test! Here are a few things to study!

Students should know how to give me the numbers in standard form

Example: 3,456

They should also know how to represent a number in expanded form

Example: 3000 + 400 + 50 + 6

Another form we have been practicing in class is word form

Example: Three thousand four hundred fifty-six

*For word form there are a few things to remember! We don't use the word "and" when writing out the numbers and spelling does not count! (as long as I can tell what they are trying to write)

Finally, the students may need to represent number in picture form using base ten block drawings

Example: You can view a video and some images of base ten blocks here: http://www.mathatube.com/base-ten-block-understanding.html

Good luck & happy studying!

What can YOU do to achieve this goal?

Today was our final "Post-it note" question - What can you do to achieve your goals? The students thought back to the goal they set on Tuesday and wrote on a Post-it note, sharing a way that they could work towards their goal. I've shared some below!